Alone for Christmas
by Derithimus
Summary: Spending Christmas alone wasn't bad. Away from her family, her friends off at their own celebrations. No, Shino decided. Christmas alone wasn't bad. It was the worst. (Female Kirito/Kimiko, Yuri)


**Hey there! I'm Derithimus! You probably know my from my other great works such as 'Absolutely Nothing' and 'I Have Only Written One Other Story On This Site And Should Shut Up'!... *awkward cough***

 **Anyway! Here's a little Christmas Oneshot for all of you! I've read more than one Kimiko story recently and I figured I'd give it a shot!**

 **Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!**

* * *

 **Alone for Christmas**

 _"This is the message of Christmas. We are never alone." - Taylor Caldwell_

* * *

"It's fine mom."

"..."

"I'm sure. I checked this morning. Only enough to get instant meals for the next few days."

"..."

"Yeah, Christmas alone'll help me grow up a little, growing experience and all... Besides, this means I won't have to drag my butt back and forth to Tokyo, right?" Shino said as she sat on her bed, shrugging off her winter sweater, tossing it over to the corner of the room.

"..."

"No, I know. Look, I promise I'll visit during Spring Vacation."

"..."

"Yeah, them I love them too. Merry Christmas Mom!..."

A moment later Shino's thumb found the hang up button and let her phone drop on the bed, listening as it bounced off of the soft material onto the carpet below with an unceremonious thud.

"Merry frickin' Christmas..."

All of this was screwed.

This was supposed to have been an awesome Christmas that Shino could spend with the friends. There were even plans in the works for massive party run by the two Kirigaya sisters Suguha and Kimiko.

Shino felt her face heat up at the thought of the elder of the two sisters. Kimiko Kirigaya.

Kimiko had been the one Shino had been the most eager to see

They had met at the last Bullet of Bullets, or rather, just before when Shino had come across the clueless looking new girl wandering around the street like a lost toddler.

While the circumstances that followed their initial meeting were rather chaotic, Shino could say without a doubt that the black haired girl had quickly become her closest friend, outranking any of the others by a country mile.

And so when the idea of a party had been put forth Shino had been one of the first to jump onboard.

Sure they all gamed regularly, often daily, but something about the very idea of spending Christmas with Kimiko and her other friends in the real world... Well...

Well, it had been enough to push her to cancel plans with her own family in favor of her friends.

But that decision had blown up in her face like a Christmas party popper when she had received a call from Kimiko.

Unfortunately only a few days before the party was set to happened the Kirigaya family had opted to go to a relatives for Christmas Day instead, and Kimiko has been tasked with the chore of phoning all their friends to inform them of the sudden change of plans.

For others it was a simple matter of reestablishing engagements with their owns families. Maybe move a celebration or two around and boom, they were set.

For Shino unfortunately, that was far from the case.

She'd already spent her money on Christmas presents for her friends, believing she wouldn't even need to bother with saving for travel fare, since Kimiko's was within walking distance.

And now those presents were gathering dust in the corner.

She'd done her best to sound neutral about the whole thing, happy even, but she was relatively sure Kimiko could see, or rather hear, right though the act.

And knowing Kimiko she was now probably guilty for leaving Shino behind, which meant that her Christmas spirit probably took a hit as well. The notion served only to make the bespectacled girl feel all that much worse.

No.

No, she had to stop this. Self loathing did nothing now. She just had to distract herself.

 ** _Thump!_**

And distracted she now was. Shino's entire body snapped to attention as the offending noise hit her ear drums. In a moment she was up, headed towards the door.

With caution, Shino glanced out of her peep hole, her breathing slow as she peered out into the darkness of the night to find...

...Nothing. Not a soul.

Doorbell ditcher? Some sort of good natured prank perhaps? No. No it was late into Christmas Eve. Most everyone would be getting ready for tomorrow by now, pranksters included.

Shino sighed.

She needed to clear her head.

Turning to her room she snatched a towel from her closet before making her way to the bathroom, pulling the door shut with her free hand.

After depositing her towel on a hook Shino took a moment to lean her back against the doorway, clenching her eyes shut as she desperately attempted to make the most of her situation in her own mind.

Spending Christmas alone wasn't bad all things considered. She was only far away from her family, and her friends were off at their own celebrations, all taking in the joy of the holiday season while she stood all alone in her empty home, futile trying to justify why she shouldn't feel miserable.

No. Christmas alone wasn't bad.

It was the worst.

 ** _Thump! Thump! Thump!_**

Shino froze. There it was again, closer than before... In fact, it was extremely close...

Close enough to even be...

Shino's eyes widened in terror as the realization hit her like a lance in the stomach.

That thumping was coming from just outside the bathroom!

Quickly retrieving her towel, Shino knelt down and opened the bathroom door just a crack, gazing out into her room where she saw the unmistakeable sight of her window slowly being slid open.

Shino felt her eyes narrow into a glare. Yeah. That was definitely someone climbing in through her window, and judging my their erratic and uncoordinated movements they were either unsure of themselves, or woefully ignorant of how the concept of breaking and entering worked.

They were dressed in a gaudy red white and green sweater that looked as if it had crawled up from the bowels of a child's worst Christmas nightmare. Their footwear, wasn't much better in the stealth department, a pair of massive hiking boots that looked as if they were a size too large for their wearer.

Still, she had to give them credit. Attempting to crawl through a window a story above the ground to rob the place was more effort than most criminals would go though. Regardless, that didn't mean she'd let her new invader have an easy time of it from here on in.

Before the figure could make a move Shino burst out of the bathroom and flung her towel at them, draping it over the intruder's head before they could react and render the element of surprise moot.

Quickly capitalizing on the intruder's shock, Shino leapt at the fumbling figure with a yell, grabbing their long black hair, bunching it into her grip before-...

...Wait. Long black hair?...

"Ow! _Ow_! Uncle! I give up! Mayday! Friendly on friendly! _Shinooo_!..."

"K-... Kimiko?!..." Shino muttered in shock, looking down at the struggling girl for a moment before she released her fist, allowing her invader's hair to fall free.

"Hey Shi!~" Kimiko exclaimed, rubbing her head as she sat up, a cheerful smile on her face, her cheeks rosey red from the cold, "Nice grip!"

"What... The heck?..."

"Huh?" Kimiko glanced down, letting out a snicker as her eyes landed on the Christmas sweater she had donned, "Oh the shirt. Yeah, ugly huh?"

"No! Why were you climbing through my win-... Never mind, I don't wanna know." Shino sighed with a small shake of the head. Kimiko was hard to understand at the best of times, and she just didn't have the energy to try today, "Aren't you supposed to be with-..."

"Hold that thought." Kimiko interrupted as she scrambled to her feet, "Are you hungry? Please say yes."

"What? Why?"

"Because, uh... Well... Maybe you should just see for yourself. Gimmie a sec!"

Kimiko quickly padded through Shino's bedroom and entranceway, making her way over to the front door. After fidgeting around for a second Kimiko pulled away the chain latch, opening the door to reveal a small stack of red boxes which would have been just out of sight of the doorway's peephole, a light dusting of snow already on top.

Shino walked up and helped Kimiko heft each one of the boxes out f the cold and into her hallway table before gingerly popping one of the boxes open.

And when she did she found than a massive pre-cooked turkey staring back at her, its skin still steaming hot despite the cold temperatures outside.

"What the?... How the?..." Shino whirled around to her friend, "You brought a freakin' _Turkey_?!"

Kimiko scratched her cheek, giving a proud grin, "Yup!~"

"How much did that _cost_?" Shino muttered to herself before her mind refocused on the issue at hand, "Wait, that's not!-... What are you even doing here?!..."

"Whaddya mean?"

"Christmas! Your family trip!"

"Oh that!" Kimiko shrugged with a giggle as she replied, "Yeah, I didn't go."

Shino was silent, staring at the girl in utter confusion written upon her face.

Kimiko in turn only tilted her head, "Wha?"

"Why not? The rest of your family went!" Shino finally spoke up as she pointed to her phone, which still lay forgotten on the carpet, "I even saw tweets from Sugu saying they'd arrived!"

"Yeah, my family went, but I wanted to stay behind."

"But-... But they're your family!"

"Well yeah, but I couldn't just leave you alone on Christmas."

Shino finally felt herself hesitate, "...How'd you even know I'd be home?"

"Well... I kinda didn't." Kimiko laughed, bashfully rubbing the back of her head, "Lucky guess, huh?"

Shino raised an eyebrow, "So you're saying?..."

"Guess I just figured it'd be worth the risk." Kimiko smiled. Not the same grin she usually wore. No. This smile was soft and genuine.

And once again Shino felt a jolt of guilt shoot through her system.

Here she was, wallowing in self pity while Kimiko had gone out of her way, and risked a Christmas alone, all for the sake of a friend.

"Shino. Earth to Shino. You in there?"

Shino glanced up, only to find that all the boxes had been moved into the other room and that Kimiko had long made herself comfortable. She'd removed her snow boots and sweater leaving her in a matte black tank top and a pair of black sweatpants with white sword symbols littering the dark colored fabric.

But that wasn't what she was looking at.

Kimiko followed Shino's eyes, and soon she too was gazing down at Shino's point of interest.

"It's... That time of year..." Shino finally muttered.

"...Yeah."

On the outside of Kimiko's right shoulder was a small tattoo of a cat peering out from behind a crescent moon. The tattoo she had done on her eighteenth birthday.

Shino remembered the day well; she and Suguha had been the ones that had accompanied Kimiko to the tattoo parlor after all. That had been a day and a half, spending nearly an hour convincing the artist that it wasn't just some Halloween tattoo that Kimiko would want removed after a few weeks. They'd only truly convinced the artist after a teary-eyed Kimiko started mentioning the members of the Moonlit Black Cats.

And when she had gotten to Ducker, the thief of the guild, the artist stood from his chair, and without a word, began drawing up Kimiko's design without a moments hesitation.

The tattoo had been free. No one questioned why.

"But it's also something else." The sound of Kimiko's voice brought Shino back to reality.

"Huh? What?" She asked as she walked into her bedroom, sitting on the bed next to Kimiko.

"This month marks a year since we met." The raven haired girl exclaimed, her tone less somber.

"Seriously?" Shino paused to consider the girl's words, "Huh... Yeah, I guess so-..."

"Good, now have some friendiversary turkey!"

Shino felt herself jump back as a turkey leg appeared in her face. She looked over the offending piece of poultry to find Kimiko tearing into one of her own with a vengeance.

Accepting the food with a roll of the eyes, Shino bit in, every single one of her taste buds thanking the heavens that they wouldn't be tasting instant food that night.

* * *

"Ugh... Too much... Friendiversary turkey..."

"Are you okay over there?" Shino giggled, watching as her normally agile friend crawled off of her bed like a slug, getting to her feet with a groan.

"Yeah, but I'm tired... I think I'm gonna get going." Kimiko replied as she trudged over to the hallway, retrieving her sweater and boots, pulling both on lethargically.

"Alright, just be careful. Don't faint in the middle of the walk back."

"It's tryptophan Shi, not rohypnol." Kimiko giggled.

"Still, be careful, I don't wanna get a text about how you fell on your face in the snow or something stupid like that."

"Oh c'mon Shi, gimmie _some_ credit!" Kimiko whined as she made her way over to the entrance.

"Alright. Well have a good night Kimiko. And... Thanks." Shino smiled, giving her friend a wave.

"I will. Night!~" Kimiko replied as she turned to the door, returning the wave.

However before she opened the door she seemed to suddenly remember something, at least judging by the look on her face.

"Wait, one last thing." She said before making her way back over to her bespectacled friend, giving her a cheshire grin.

"Hmm? What is-... _Ah_!?"

"...Merry Christmas Shino!" Kimiko chirped, leaving a beet red Shino staring at her in shock, a small wet spot on her cheek.

Her mission complete, the raven haired girl quickly attempted to bound out of the door and into the night.

However that method of escape suddenly found itself to be less than desirable as she opened the door and came face to face with almost 2 feet of snow.

Unfortunately for her, while her eyes certainly processed the obstacle set forth before her, her feet did not, and with an undignified yelp...

...She fell face first into the snow.

Another whine escaped her lips as Kimiko pulled herself out of the white blanket of snow, listening as Shino let out a giggle which quickly evolved into full blown laughter.

"S'not funny..."

"Yes it is! Real smooth Kimi!..." Shino continued on her laughing spree for nearly a full minute, much to her friend's dismay, before finally reaching out a hand, "Get in here, and dry off."

"No, no it's okay I just-..."

"You'll be soaking wet by the time you get home if you don't." Shup interrupted, her tone leaving no room for argument, "Besides, you're just going to be there all alone. You might as well just stay."

"Okay, you win, thanks for the invite; I call dibs on shower!" Kimiko hastily exclaimed as she shuffled back into the apartment, disappearing into the bathroom without a moment's hesitation.

Shino shook her head with a smile.

Sure, this wasn't exactly how she'd envisioned her first Christmas away from family to go. Sure, she should've anticipated the best while planning for the worst. And sure, today hadn't started out amazing in the slightest.

But... As she listened to Kimiko clamoring around in her bathroom, loudly praising the heavens for hot water, she couldn't help the smile that lingered on her face.

At least she wasn't alone for Christmas.


End file.
